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I've heard that an infrared light will make an object invisible to a camera. Anyone know if it's true? That would, surely, make sure it's invisible to the camer

I've heard that an infrared light will make an object invisible to a camera. Anyone know if it's true? That would, surely, make sure it's invisible to the camera and the AI. Note: Got my answer: https://www.wikihow.com/Blind-a-Surveillance-Camera https://www.wikihow.com/Blind-a-Surveillance-Camera It's no very practical.

mindcrime 4y ago
The thing is, the answer is really "sort of" or even "maybe". Some of it depends on the camera in question. As I recall the genesis of this idea was rooted in the fact that at a certain point in time, many security cameras (especially cheaper ones) had little or no IR filtering, and a bright IR light source could cause a "flare" effect that would effectively mask other parts of the field of view. But it's hard to know in advance if this will or will not apply to any given camera. Also, it might be able to, for example, hide your face or mask your car's license plate... but it doesn't make you invisible. In fact, just the opposite... using this technique makes you acutely visible, but just (if all goes well) unrecognizable. Or if you masked the entire field of vision, you might be effectively "invisible" but it would be obvious to anyone watching the camera output that something weird is happening. So you'd be making yourself conspicuous if there's a live operator watching. So yeah... it does kinda work, but definitely of questionable (but probably non-zero) practicality.
- brk 4y ago
  Actually, all security cameras tends to have an IR filter by default, otherwise colors will be off. Better surveillance cameras will have a "movable cut filter", meaning a mechanism to remove the IR filter from the light path to the sensor to allow for better low-light images. In this mode, the camera reverts to black and white images so you don't get the color shift from the ambient IR light. Using some average 5mm IR LEDs in a flashlight setup during daylight hours would do nothing most of the time. At night you might be able to cause problems with some cheaper cameras, better units with good Wide Dynamic Range specifications would be able to handle most of these kinds of disruptor devices. You'd need some really powerful IR LEDs, like an array of OSRAM IR LEDs (https://ams-osram.com/products/leds/ir-leds https://ams-osram.com/products/leds/ir-leds) to create a strong IR floodlight that would cause the camera to be blown out. Also it is common these days for cameras to send alerts on problems with massive image disruption, so you'd have to hope you're trying to disrupt a very cheap system with nobody receiving event notifications (which is admittedly still very common).

mindcrime 4y ago

The thing is, the answer is really "sort of" or even "maybe". Some of it depends on the camera in question. As I recall the genesis of this idea was rooted in the fact that at a certain point in time, many security cameras (especially cheaper ones) had little or no IR filtering, and a bright IR light source could cause a "flare" effect that would effectively mask other parts of the field of view. But it's hard to know in advance if this will or will not apply to any given camera. Also, it might be able to, for example, hide your face or mask your car's license plate... but it doesn't make you invisible. In fact, just the opposite... using this technique makes you acutely visible, but just (if all goes well) unrecognizable. Or if you masked the entire field of vision, you might be effectively "invisible" but it would be obvious to anyone watching the camera output that something weird is happening. So you'd be making yourself conspicuous if there's a live operator watching. So yeah... it does kinda work, but definitely of questionable (but probably non-zero) practicality.

brk 4y ago
Actually, all security cameras tends to have an IR filter by default, otherwise colors will be off. Better surveillance cameras will have a "movable cut filter", meaning a mechanism to remove the IR filter from the light path to the sensor to allow for better low-light images. In this mode, the camera reverts to black and white images so you don't get the color shift from the ambient IR light. Using some average 5mm IR LEDs in a flashlight setup during daylight hours would do nothing most of the time. At night you might be able to cause problems with some cheaper cameras, better units with good Wide Dynamic Range specifications would be able to handle most of these kinds of disruptor devices. You'd need some really powerful IR LEDs, like an array of OSRAM IR LEDs (https://ams-osram.com/products/leds/ir-leds https://ams-osram.com/products/leds/ir-leds) to create a strong IR floodlight that would cause the camera to be blown out. Also it is common these days for cameras to send alerts on problems with massive image disruption, so you'd have to hope you're trying to disrupt a very cheap system with nobody receiving event notifications (which is admittedly still very common).